In 1992 the body of a young woman is found dumped behind a Houston restaurant. She would be the first in a series of murders by the Tourniquet Killer. Who was he? Why did he use a tourniquet to kill his victims? Listen to the story of how Anthony Allen Shore got away with his crimes for so long.
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In 1992 Anthony Shore was 30 years old. He lived in Houston, Texas with his wife Gina and 2 young daughters, Amber and Tiffany.
He is a telephone repairman and is charismatic and well-liked in the community. His friends call him Telephone Tony. Tony played in a local band called the Saint Vitus Dance and would have gigs in the evenings after work. He often let his daughters come and watch.
Behind the Facade Lurked a Predator
As a teenager, he would use his sister to lure girls into his car and he would sexually harass and fondle them.
In 1986, Anthony was 24 and living with his wife and two infant daughters when he met 14-year-old Laurie Tremblay. Laurie was walking down the street when Tony pulled up beside her in his van and rolled down the window. After some small talk, Tony offers her a ride to school and she accepts.
On September 26th, after several rides, Tony pushes himself onto Laurie and becomes very aggressive. She tells him to stop but he insists. When he tries to unhook her bra she gets angry and they argue. To ensure she doesn’t tell he wraps a nylon cord around her neck and begins strangling her using just his hands. She fights him so hard that he is left with wounds on his hands.
Using his van he took her body and dumped her behind a restaurant next to a dumpster 3 miles from her apartment. She was found but no one had seen anything and in 1986 there is not much to follow as far as physical evidence.
The case quickly went cold.
Anthony Allen Shore Spots Another Target
On April 16th, 1992 Anthony spotted Maria del Carmen Estrada while she was on her way to work. She was waiting for a bus around 6:30 AM. She was 20 years old but looked much younger. He pulled up and tried to offer her a ride but she quickly turned him down. He circled back around a couple of times and she finally accepted the ride.
When she got in the van he started making advances and she pushed him away. This set him off and he became extremely violent. He locked all the doors and already had a cord with a stick on the end to create a tourniquet. Anthony Allen Shore wrapped it around her neck and raped and strangled her to death.
He dumped her body in an alley behind a Dairy Queen. She was clothed but her panties were down around her knees and she still had the rope around her neck. From this crime scene, police are able to get much more evidence including DNA from semen and fingernail scrapings.
Maria was identified by her best friend Rosa, who had seen the news and recognized Maria’s sneakers. They were white with gold detailing. Maria was supposed to come over that morning, but Rosa figured she had gotten busy. When she saw the news she still couldn’t believe it was her and went out looking at hangouts until she gathered the courage to go to the crime scene and identify her friend.
The DNA is processed by the Houston crime lab, but because Tony is not in the system no hits came up.
Anthony’s Marriage Falls Apart
At home, within the year his marriage fell apart and he and his wife divorced. It became a battle for custody of their two daughters, but not what you would think. They fought because neither of them wanted to have the kids. His ex-wife gave sole custody to Tony so that she could move in with her boyfriend. This was attractive for the girls because their mother and her boyfriend were strict disciplinarians.
The conditions of the home were squalid. To save money the sisters had to share bathwater and had allotments of toilet paper. The home was infested with cockroaches and other insects. Kids at school would pick on the girls for smelling or having dirty clothes. In lieu of childcare when Tony wanted to go out he nailed down the windows in the house and put an outside lock on so that the girls couldn’t leave.
His corporal punishment was also out of line. He would spank the girls on their bare butts and the bottoms of their feet. He would also pull them around the house by their hair and tie them up in blankets. They weren’t allowed to cry, if they did the punishment would become worse.
He did start to allow Tiffany and Amber to have friends over for sleepovers. He would allow them to play games where they would dress provocatively and put on tons of make-up and dance around. As an adult, Tiffany found her father’s journal and discovered that it was part of his sexual attraction to young girls.
Anthony Allen Shore Stalks Another Young Girl
Meanwhile, while working in a nearby neighborhood Tony spotted a 14-year-old girl with whom he became obsessed and began stalking. He knew all of her patterns and on October 19th, 1993 he broke into her home knowing she would be coming home from school alone. Tony disguised himself and attacked her. He bound her with duct tape and raped her. This time, however, he didn’t kill her.
Because of the disguise, she couldn’t ID him and because she was left alive, it wasn’t connected to the previous murders.
Anthony Sexually Assaults His Daughters
Back at home, Tiffany is around 10 years old when her father begins coming into her room at night and touching himself while watching her in the bed. One night Tiffany is playing a card game and her father fed her drink after drink. She woke up to her own father assaulting her.
This would bring a pattern of sexual assault on both girls.
Tiffany began to withdraw even more and her behavior and appearance were noticed at school. CPS pulled Tiffany aside at school and asked her general questions about her home life. Tiffany lied, fearful of what would happen if the truth came out. CPS still paid a visit to the home but the girls had told their father about the school visit so he made them clean the home and had them prepped.
Nothing came of the CPS visit and it was at that point that Tiffany decided to commit suicide by overdosing on aspirin. She was unsuccessful. Her father wasn’t concerned with her attempts and threatened that if she wasn’t happy they will take her away.
More Victims
In August of 1994, Tony spots 9-year-old Diana Rebollar while she is walking to the store to get groceries for her mom. On her way back Tony lured her into his car and strangled her using a rope and a bamboo stick. She was left by a loading dock at a nearby building and witnesses had spotted a van but no license plate.
In the summer of 1995, he saw 16-year-old Dana Sanchez on a payphone while she was hitchhiking to get to her boyfriend’s house. Tony talks her into the car. He doesn’t sexually assault her but strangles her with a rope and a toothbrush. Afterward, he took her body to a field outside of town.
Dana was reported missing the next day, but because of the remote location of her body, she wasn’t found by police. After a week Tony called a local TV station and told them where the body was located and that there was a serial killer on the loose. Unfortunately, the call could not be traced.
Beginning of the End
In the summer of 1997, Tony sent his daughters to live with his mother in Sacramento. He said that he was marrying his 18-year-old financée and they needed a honeymoon period. They did marry but quickly divorced after she accused him of abuse. He sent them on a plane wearing pajamas under clothes and no other belongings. While with her aunt, Tiffany finally opens up about the abuse, and Tony is arrested back in Houston. He pleads no contest to two counts of indecency with a child and gets only 8 months probation.
This did require him to register as a sex offender and submit a DNA sample to CODIS. Tiffany and Amber remained with their grandmother and the next few years pass without incident.
Anthony Allen Shore is Arrested for Murder
In 2003 an audit of the Houston crime lab found issues in their processes and they decided to send samples from their higher-profile cases to the Dallas labs to be processed. Finally, they get a hit on the fingernail clippings from Anthony Allen Shore’s second victim.
On October 24th, 2003 Anthony Allen Shore is arrested for the murder of Maria del Carmen Estrada. During police questioning, he confessed to not only Maria’s murder but also the murders of Diana, Dana, and Laurie as well as the rape. Anthony is only tried for the murder of Maria as it has the strongest evidence. During the punishment phase, the 3 other murders are presented. They also bring in the rape victim and Tiffany to testify as they are trying to obtain the death penalty.
Anthony Allen Shore is sentenced to death on November 15th, 2004.
Shore’s appeal lawyers argued that he suffered from brain damage early in life and this went undiscovered by his trial attorneys. This affected Shore’s decision to disregard their advice when he told his trial judge he wanted the death penalty. In 2016, a federal appeals court turned down his appeal. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case. The six-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected a clemency petition.
His sentence was carried out on January 18th, 2018. None of his family attended.
Resources
- Anthony Allen Shore – Wikipedia
- Tourniquet Killer Anthony Shore: A look back at his reign of terror
- ‘Tourniquet Killer’ Anthony Allen Shore executed in Texas for 1992 strangling
- Serial Killer Anthony Allen Shore (AKA The Tourniquet Killer) – video Dailymotion